when you see boehner calling the caucus and say, hey, let's aavoid the nasty showdowns. that's saying let's not be hostage takers. you see obama learning how to deal with the caucus. let's extend the middle class tax cuts, right now, let's do it. he puts them in a bad position and making it look like, look, middle class, they are not giving you what you need. so learning how to work with them, learning that we have to have some compromise, i see some tea leaves that we may have a better next couple of years. we'll see. >> it will be interesting, if a deal is struck. i don't think it will nearly as good as for republicans as the deal that the president offered them. the grand deal that had been offered before. you know, in some ways i actually think the problem for republicans and for conservatives is that a lot of their ideas and principles have actually won. you know, since ronald reagan we no longer have 70% tax rates on the highest income earners. nobody is arguing for that. we're arguing to go back to 39.6%. on health care reform, the president's health care reform w